Uzbekistan & Turkey: Is It Love?

The just-concluded Uzbek-Turkish summit meeting in Ankara was like a meeting of long-lost friends.

“You could tell from our eyes how we had missed one another over these 20 years,” Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said, standing near his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a joint briefing. “We understood one another without saying even half a word, even without words, just by looking at one another.”

When Mirziyoyev flew into Ankara for a two-day visit on October 25 – trip made at Erdogan’s initiative – it marked the first state visit by an Uzbek president to Turkey in 18 years. Both the Uzbek and Turkish leaders were in a buoyant mood during the joint briefing. “We are happy with the initiative being undertaken by Uzbekistan. And we are instructing all ministries and [nongovernmental] organizations to develop full-fledged cooperation with Uzbekistan,” Erdogan said.